Radio Spots Try To Expose Corruption

Other news to note - Puerto Rico Report

October 4, 1999|By Ivan Roman, San Juan Bureau

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - ``Daddy, what does the word `corruption' mean?''

A child will soon say those words over the radio, opening a series of unprecedented public-service announcements to enlist citizens in the fight against government corruption and urge them to report information to the Comptroller of Puerto Rico.

``Daddy'' tells the child that corruption is when someone uses his or her job to make undue profit. The child then asks the father, who works in the government, if he ``does corruption.''

``No,'' he answers, adding that most government employees don't either. ``They are just a few isolated cases that tarnish the good name of honest employees like your father.''

Despite that clarification, the ads, starting this month and running until June 2000, make some politicians uneasy. Given the headlines about corruption and misappropriation of funds in government agencies, some are concerned the campaign could affect Gov. Pedro Rossello's image.

Even worse, some worry the ads with the ``c'' word could harm the New Progressive Party's gubernatorial candidate, Carlos Pesquera, selected as Rossello's successor. As Secretary of Transportation and Public Works until last August, Pesquera chaired the Board of Trustees of the Port Authority, which now is enmeshed in scandal. Although no one puts him directly in the fraud scheme, critics say that it shows he was asleep at the wheel.

Pedro Figueroa Costas, the NPP electoral commissioner, said he was initially concerned the ads could be interpreted as referring to the NPP, which dominates executive and legislative branches.

``The comptroller assured me that the ad campaign had no colors and it was aimed at all the political parties,'' said Figueroa Costas, referring to the parties' colors. ``We're satisfied with that.''

Puerto Rico Comptroller Manuel Diaz Saldana met with the State Elections Commission to get the ads cleared because they will be running during the first half of the election year in 2000.

``This has nothing to do with political parties or electoral races,'' Diaz Saldana said. ``I think everyone knows that corruption exists. We think people know where it's happening and they should report it.''

If headlines in the past six months are an indication, the public has plenty of work ahead. In addition to convictions and a pending second trial in the $2.2 million fraud and money-laundering case at the San Juan AIDS Institute, corruption scandals, investigations or arrests have erupted at, among other places, the Housing Department, the Port Authority, the Highway Authority and the Agriculture Department.

With all the scandals in the past few years, said Damaris Mangual Velez, elections commissioner for the Puerto Rican Independence Party, it's natural Figueroa and his party feel targeted.

``Corruption in Puerto Rico has two colors, blue and red, and they take away the green,'' said Mangual, referring to the colors of the NPP and the opposition Popular Democratic Party. ``[Figueroa) represents the NPP, so he has to defend their interests.''

Figueroa said his party will work hard to get out its message next year that the headlines are proof the Puerto Rican government, with some help from the federal government, is successfully rooting out corruption.

``Of course, the opposition will always try to use it to smear us, but I'm sure this government has been the one to attack corruption the most,'' Figueroa said.

Putting this message in a child's voice was part of a strategy to get people to pay attention, Diaz Saldana said, and it's likely for children to be exposed to the news and talk about such things.

At the end of the first ad, the child says: ``I'm glad you're not corrupt, Daddy. And if we see corruption happening, where can we call?''